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From /apa, August 1, 2024, 1:55 p.m.
Image: (APA/AFP/NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA)
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Image: (APA/AFP/NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA)
MOSCOW. US citizens Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, who were sentenced to long prison terms in Russia for espionage, are free.
This is part of a larger Prisoner exchange with the participation of several countries, US President Joe Biden said in a written statement. “We have negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens, who were political prisoners in their own country.”
Four people return to the USA
A total of four people would be returned to the USA, he explained: three American citizens and one person with an American green card. In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the other two people, according to Biden, are Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Mursa. The German Rico K., who was pardoned after a death sentence in Belarus, was also released.
Referring to those released, Biden said: “Some of these women and men have been wrongfully detained for years. All of them have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today their suffering ends.” “The deal that secured their freedom was a masterpiece of diplomacy,” the US President said.
Image: (APA/AFP/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)
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Image: (APA/AFP/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)
The Democrat thanked the other countries involved in the complex negotiations, including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey. “This is a powerful example of why it is so important to have friends in this world that you can trust and rely on,” Biden said, assuring that he would continue to work for the release of Americans who were wrongfully imprisoned elsewhere in the world.
In custody since the end of 2023
The Russian judiciary had arrested the 32-year-old reporter Gershkovich In mid-July, he was sentenced to 16 years in a strict camp in a controversial trial for alleged espionage. The Russia correspondent for the US newspaper “Wall Street Journal” was arrested by the Russian secret service FSB on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in the Urals at the end of 2023. He was accused of collecting secret information about Russia’s arms complex for US agencies. The “Wall Street Journal” rejected the allegations.
The 54-year-old former US soldier Whelan was also sentenced to 16 years in a penal camp by a Russian court in June 2020 for alleged spying. Before that, he had been in prison for around one and a half years, since 2018. According to the FSB, Whelan was caught red-handed as a spy. He is said to have received secret data on a USB stick. Whelan, who has multiple citizenships, vehemently protested his innocence and spoke of a politically motivated verdict.
The US government has repeatedly called for the release of both men. Americans are repeatedly suspected of espionage in Russia.
Seven aircraft involved
The Turkish secret service MIT announced that a total of seven aircraft were involved. According to the report, prisoners who were also held in prisons in Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus were exchanged in the Turkish capital Ankara. The secret service MIT itself said it organized the deal. It spoke of a historic Prisoner exchange.
The exchange had been expected for some time – Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had recently repeatedly declared his willingness to do so. Putin has been criticized for using political prisoners as hostages to force the release of Russians from Western prisons. The USA, for example, had insisted on the release of the reporter Gershkovich from the Wall Street Journal, who had been convicted of espionage.
Interest in “Tiergarten murderer”
Putin, in turn, was particularly interested in the Russian imprisoned in Germany. The so-called Tiergarten murderer had killed a Georgian in a park in Berlin who had sought protection in Germany. The Russian president publicly defended the murderer because, from the Russian perspective, he had eliminated an enemy of the state. Putin called the victim a “bandit”, “murderer” and “bloodthirsty person”.
In 2021, a court in Berlin found it proven that the Russian man treacherously shot the Georgian in the park on August 23, 2019, on behalf of the state. The man had long been in Moscow’s sights because he was accused of leading a militia in the fight against Russia for several years during the second Chechen war. According to Moscow, he was responsible for dozens of deaths among Russian security forces.
In Russia, before the announcement of the Prisoner exchange News of an unusual transfer of political prisoners has been piling up. They were apparently for the Prisoner exchange to Moscow. Among the released Russians are said to be the human rights activist Oleg Orlov from the organization Memorial and the artist Alexandra Skotschilenko.
Honors and political positions?
All of them are opponents of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and had received long prison sentences. The West had criticized the verdicts as arbitrary justice and demanded the release of the prisoners.
The now released Russians can now hope for honours and political positions in their homeland, like previous returned prisoners, such as deputies in the State Duma, said political scientist Tatjana Stanowaja. She had previously announced that a major exchange was in the works.
Stanovaya said that time was pressing for the exchange because US President Joe Biden wanted to end his term in office in a dignified manner. Putin, in turn, was interested in the barter deal so as not to jeopardize the long preparations for the elections in the US. For the Kremlin, this is proof that the Americans can be very flexible and practical when they want something. “That means that they are also capable of making a deal with Ukraine, if they want to, of course.”
Despite their strained relations, the US and Russia have repeatedly exchanged prisoners in the past. In December 2022, during the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, US basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been convicted of a drug offense, was released. In return, Moscow received Russian arms dealer Viktor But, who had been convicted in the US. After his return, But expressed his support for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and is now a politician.
This article was last updated at 20:13.
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